So let’s see, first the good news. RPD moved the placement of their signs just like I asked them to. Amazing. One of the old signs, which actually were pretty new, totally blocked the view of peds trying to get across the Golden Gate Park Panhandle bicycle freeway, otherwise known as the Panhandle Path. So you’d be looking to the west, where riders are coming downhill, and then RPD’s sign would be in the way. So that’s great.

Now, the new signs still have the SEVEN NO’s listing RPD’s rules, but they also have “wayfinding” up top. (Which is prolly why they moved the signs – the addition of the arrows telling tourists which way to go. You know, our RPD isn’t really all that big on safety, despite what it might tell you.) See?

The sign is pointing you right to NOPA, but it’s all “Divisidero Corridor?” I thought that was already a failed place name? Mmmm. Haight-Ashbury is fine of course, but what’s this, “North Panhandle” points straight north of the Panhandle. This is another dis on NoPA, non? I’ll tell you, some neighborhood NIMBY/homeowner’s group calls the North Panhandle WEST NOPA, which translates as the area west of the area that’s north of the area that’s east of the Golden Gate Park Panhandle. I’m srsly. Here’s your reverse angle, looking west:

So RPD left some room for taggers, as you can see in the first photo, and of course in the above photo, some pedestrian lined out the bike rider symbol with the international sign for GTFO.

(I know a lady who lives on Shrader who got hit by a bike rider going about 20 MPH, which is easy to do when you’re heading east since it’s downhill.* It doesn’t take much effort to get her to bring up the subject, as this accident is still on her mind. IDK, RPD refuses to widen this multi use path next to Fell. And RPD refuses to post a speed limit. Anyway, there’s a strong contingent of peds in the area who Don’t Like Bikes.)

So that’s it, enjoy your new signs, Frisco.

*You know, you don’t even need to pedal to go from Stanyan to the DMV on Baker eight blocks away, right? I can start from 0 MPH and make it to the DMV going at 16.3 MPH with big, wide, knobby tires, so that means that roadies with tiny tires, some of them pumping away with their heads down or even with their butts out of the saddle, well, maybe some of them are going too fast.

When did this project start? I forget, a half-year ago? You can see an old-school can in the background. I guess they’ll take it out soon? (They used to have a recycling catcher for aluminum cans up top, but I guess that system didn’t work out, and a lot of the time your bottle/can would go straight down into the garbage pile anyway oh well. Sometimes I leave recycling atop the cans, for recyclers, but RPD don’t like recyclers I’ve noticed, and these new-school cans are curved up top as you can see.)

People thought that they’d put benches in here, but obviously not.

(I don’t get SFGov, man. Are garbage cans good or not? Sometimes they are, apparently, but you can’t find a one in Dolores Park these days. And yet, they just added a bunch of cans on the Valencia Mission corridor. And right around these places you can see in the Panhandle here, they’ve taken out cans, to fight rats, I guess, but now they’re adding more in the same basic place. And for that matter, is free parking for cars on Sundays good or bad? Our SFGov can’t seem to decide. First it’s good, then it’s bad, and now it’s good again, and there are proposals to get rid of it again. This is like over a period of what, three-four years? And our SFMTA seemed to like traffic for a while there, but now it’s against traffic, particularly when it’s caused by UBER Lyft. Etc.)

You know man, down in some place like Mexico City, they decide to put garbage cans someplace and then they do it, no muss no fuss. It doesn’t take a year, it takes like a week. The local government doesn’t boast about how great it is with endless signage and marketing and it doesn’t tell us how we should all support the area’s unpopular, appointed Mayor. So IDK, Man.

Anyway, there are still a few concrete pads unfinished, so there might be a few more benches going in. And I guess we got LED streetlamps last year (so now when they’re shining all day long in the daytime, they use less juice).

But many places in the world have garbage cans, and LED lighting for that matter. Like all over the place, the Central Valley, for example. And yet they don’t have this whole self-congratulatory hullaballoo about “transforming” the “streetscape” or whathaveyou.

Oh, and another thing. People fall down on the horrible, unmaintained surface of the Panhandle walking path along Oak like every day/week. Do you know that Rec and Park? Oh you have claims filed against you from joggers and others so you do know that? But you don’t really care? OK. OK fine.

And, needless to say, the Panhandle is still the same place as it’s been the past half-century. There will be no “transformation,” anytime soon. Sry.

(The “R” in BRT stands for the same thing the R in the #38R stands for – RAPID, baby! It’s the phrase of the decade. The SFMTA should change its name to the SFRTA, the San Francisco Rapid Transit Agency. And the SFCTA should be called the SFRCRTRA (San Francisco Rapid County Rapid Transit Rapid Authoritah. And that means that a Geary BART spur (which would be more rapider than buses replacing buses) should/would be called Rapid EXTREME or something.)

As with most federal / state-funded pork barrel projects, there are costs and benefits, and there will be winners and losers.